Moondust

Chapter three

He was dancing again. There was no other way to say it. He looked beautiful when he danced.

Beautiful.

Nico knew that the word was mostly used for girls, but the boy dancing in the studio was just that. Beautiful.

His body was lean and muscled, his hair a honey gold against the stark white wall of the studio. He never opened his eyes when he danced and even though Nico would have loved to see the color of them, see how they glowed as he danced, free and unburdened, he didn't want the boy to stop.

His fingers couldn't help but follow the boy's motions, the bow speeding up when he spun and slowing as he landed, feet barely touching the ground.

He was the thing Nico looked forward to most, not his crappy life and definitely not his father's phone calls wondering where the hell he went.

Not the visits to Hazel at the hospital or false hope that her sleeping frame might come alive again, like before the car crash.

Not these street performances in a feeble attempt to help her.

His family and his music came a close second, but they weren't the thing he looked to, lived for, all week.

No, it was the complete and utter sereneness on his features as the danced. It reminded him of something that he once had, freedom, innocence.

He noticed the other people as well, the woman sitting in the corner and the other guy that Piper seemed to have a slight crush on.

But Nico's focus was always on the boy. He didn't even know his name. He was probably some rich frat boy whose parents had enough money to send him to some fancy prep college, living in luxury. He wanted to know more about him.

Nico could see his muscles straining as he pushed himself harder and harder, as he flew. He slowed , landed and bent, reaching his arms to the sky. He looked weightless and free.

Then Nico allowed himself to stop.

The woman in the studio was saying something. Piper was talking beside him, talking about that being his best performance of the day, Nico didn't notice as he stared into the studio.

Because the boy was staring at him, his eyes blue as the sky above them, pieces of sky that were looking right at him.